The Business Process Model and Notation Used for the Representation of Alzheimer’s Disease Patients Care Process
Martin Kopecký, Hana Tomášková
Abstract
Currently, the number of patients with neurological diseases is increasing, especially those older than 65 suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. This development increases the emphasis on understanding and mapping treatment and care processes, not only for the elderly. Service providers (of both treatment and care) are under general pressure to decrease charges and maintain or improve existing levels of care. This situation is significantly influenced by a comprehensive knowledge of the whole process and its values. This publication therefore aims to describe the fundamental procedural aspects of caring for patients with Alzheimer’s disease, using Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). It also aims to show the possibilities of using BPMN in the description of treatment and care. Modeling of the business process is more frequently being applied not only by businesses but also by scientists involved in process models. It is used to model medical topics, with approximately 10% of its publications only, and most of these publications deal only with clinical pathways, not with overall treatment and care processes. However, the BPMN model allows the whole process of medical and nonmedical care for patients with Alzheimer’s disease to be described, including the decomposition of partial activities into individual threads and sub-processes or atomic tasks. This paper presents the BPMN modeling and mapping of the specific care path for neurodegenerative patients. The text provides a new perspective on the BPMN modeling of Alzheimer’s disease. The presented model offers the option of expanding treatment cost calculation to simulate the process using graphical tools and languages. The overall view of this system creates a much more complex concept of the system and its surroundings.